ALSO TODAY: More details on post-Phoenix payroll plans — Freeland in Washington, DC

With a little over a week left on the parliamentary clock before the House shuts down for the summer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to face from his opposition adversaries for a second day in a row, and while it likely won’t be his final cross-aisle cross-examination before the sitting wraps up for the season, it could be the last time that he’ll field questions for the full 45 minute session.

(As Process Nerd explained yesterday, the prospect of an earlier-than-expected end to the session remains at least theoretically possible, although there’s still a long list of unfinished legislative business working its way through the queue.)

One topic that he may find himself obliged to address when the curtain rises on the Chamber this afternoon is national pharmacare — and specifically, the final report of the advisory council convened by his government to explore the logistics of implementing such a policy, which is scheduled to be released this morning by council chair and onetime Ontario Liberal health minister Eric Hoskins.

In an interim report issued earlier this spring, the council recommended the creation of a
“national drug agency,” as well as a “master list of prescription medications that all Canadians would have access to,” as the Toronto Star reported at the time, but offered few details on how such a program would work.

Whether or not the final presentation will include a more comprehensive roadmap towards full — or, for that matter, partial — drug coverage remains to be seen, but it’s a safe bet that it will come under immediate fire from the federal New Democrats, who have made it clear that they intend to make their counterproposal a key component of their election platform.

As for the prime minister, he’s also booked in a post-QP sitdown with Francophonie Secretary-General Louise Mushikiwabo and Official Languages Minister Mélanie Joly in his new West Block office suite.

Meanwhile, Treasury Board President Joyce Murray will provide an update on her government’s ongoing efforts to deal with the consequences of the glitch-plagued rollout of the Phoenix payroll system, which her office is now framing as “progress towards … a next generation HR and pay solution.”

She’ll reveal the latest steps being taken to move past the Phoenix fiasco during a midday announcement at Treasury Board headquarters alongside Gatineau Liberal MPs Steven MacKinnon and Greg Fergus, as well as Professional Instittue of the Public Service president Debi Daviau.

Also out and about in the capital today:

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains drops by Mindbridge Analytics Inc. with a fresh tranche of federal support for “artificial intelligence innovation.”

Small Business Minister Mary Ng “celebrates the launch” of the new Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub for Eastern Ontario.

Finally, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is back in Washington, DC to discuss the slow-but-presumably-steady progress towards ratification of the new North American free trade deal with her primary US counterpart, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, as well as lead trade representative Robert Lighthizer and a contingent of unnamed Congress members.

She’ll also stop by the National Press Club, where, as per the advisory, she’ll “receive an award and deliver the keynote address” at a dinner hosted by the Association of Women in International Trade.